The Art of the Outline

I’ve been writing a lot for classes lately – one TV script (final draft due tomorrow!), one movie screenplay, an essay, and also this weekly gig. I got pretty sick of staring at my old-school style of outlining:

1. Thesis – this outline’s goal is to show how I used to outline

• I used a hierarchy of bullet points
• relating back to my main theme
• each sub-point adds another intricacy to my core argument
• And finally, I tie it all back together in a:

1. New direction – this may be another

• topic paragraph for a blog post
• scene for my screenplay
• Section of my essay
• And finally, I reach

****THE CONCLUSION – That this gets really boring to do for hours.

So, I came up with a new style of outlining. Something refreshing, colorful, exciting – something that I could do for 5 hours in a row without wanting to kill myself and cure the overwhelming boredom.

I created: The Board.

The board uses color-coded post-it notes and color-coded ink on them to divide up my themes, plot twists, character arcs, by color so I can keep track of them visually. Post-it Notes also let me feel my story out, literally moving scenes by hand to visualize the order and progression of arc, theme, or plot.

I got this idea from Blake Snyder, a screenwriter who wrote an awesome book on screenwriting advice called Save the Cat.

I created a second board for this screenplay (a super-hero stoner comedy, that’s why I have green post-it notes for the main plot and green ink for the super-hero’s dialogue-lulz) using one of Blake’s ideas from his sequel book Save the Cat Strikes Back, in which Blake notes the value of using different organizational logics in order to stimulate the creative process.

(This board’s structural logic is inspired from Snyder’s Chart Called the Conversion Machine)

Moreover, the board’s physical presence really helps me feel connected to my writing. My writing isn’t just an electronic file on my computer anymore, it’s a physical object I spent time and energy creating. And it looks so PRETTY!!! Every part of the writing process becomes a work of art in its own right, filling me with a fresh creative energy to push through writer’s block. So I guess what I’m saying is, don’t underestimate the value of outlining – and also, don’t underestimate your ability to invent creative, artistic ways to innovate on the very nature of the outline – an outline says a lot about your creative sensbilities.